Santa brought a new 120 from Thailand. The engine is new but has been prepped for .25. (pull start, governor, gas tank removed, rejetted,gear box rotated and block machined) Are we screwed. I have read that the gear box is prone to leaking. Any other info? is it legal? Will it make power? I have not yet taken it to our engine guy. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. we are running Jr Honda.

On the QMA site they posted a tech update that said run two gaskets on the gearbox to fix the oil leak there. We don't have one of those engines so we haven't tried that, but it is worth a shot.

The only thing I saw from the USAC side was regarding the 160 engines, so you should be ok there. I guess it depends on what you mean when you say the block was machined. If that means the mounts and stuff were ground down on the outside then that should be ok. If it was any other work on the inside then that is a whole other story...

None of the thai motors are legal and after talking to several engine builders the are going to have even more problems with the 120 than the 160 the reason is the heads are being hand ported from thai and not cnced like in japan meaning you can't tell if it was done factory or by the owner don know how they can fix it other than setting a max limit and let the porting begin witch. Can help all that own older motors they say the teir 2 and 3 are a lot stronger than the thai motors when the heads are set at a maxthen you get into the carb thai is smaller don't know there

There was never a bulletin from USAC regarding the Thai 120 so it is currently legal in USAC. I checked everywhere on the site and in my inbox and there was never any mention of the 120s not being legal. I even asked that question and was told they were at that point (end of October). Maybe James can chime in here to make sure mis-information is getting out to the membership?

Of course making it illegal now after people went out and bought some in preparation for 2010 will go over really well too. I know of several people with the Thai 120s at our track...

I have an email from James on 10/14 that doesn't say anything about them being illegal, but said they are looking into it. If they are in fact illegal, then someone dropped the ball and should reconsider how they communicate stuff like that to the membership. I know several people that already have the Thai 120s and I have one of AJs sponsors ordering a couple for our team as well. I really hope I can cancel the order!!!

Not trying to start a fight but if you know the 160 is illegal because of the tech issue why would you go out and by the 120 knowing it has the same issues or at least have it clarified though USAC first that doesn't make a lot of sense

Thanks for the advise Phaster, but based on the information I have from USAC, the 160s are not illegal due to tech issues. I specifically asked that question in an email to USAC and the response was "no they are illegal due to HP advantage" over the older engines. I also asked about the 120s because I knew we were going to order a couple and was told they were looking into them, but nothing saying they were illegal.

Hey I'm just sayin a yes means yes and no awser doesn't mean yes just hate for the ones that buy one to come back pissed cause they got the yellow light not the green and not sure but I don't think they will care if people bought them under assuption (not sure I spelled that right sorry)but ya get the drift some people look at the rules and say well there's not a rule aginst it well there's also not a rule for itm

I agree with you, but I didn't get "no answer". I got a response. For the record, there still isn't anything official from USAC stating the Thailand 120s are not legal. Eric mentions that some of them have been found to fail tech inspection, but there is no official bulletin from USAC like there was with the 160. I guess time will tell...probably not in time for our first race in a few weeks, but oh well.